By: The past few races have shown a markedly more competitive McLaren, with Norris able to win in both Hungary and the Netherlands, but Mercedes does not appear to have been caught by surprise by the progress made by the Woking team. Kimi Antonelli discussed it during the Italian Media Round held in the Mercedes hospitality unit at Monza for FIA-accredited Italian media, including formula1.it.
According to the Italian driver, McLaren's step forward came primarily after Hungary, when a package was introduced on the cars of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri that allowed the team to make a significant performance gain. That progress continued at the most recent round in Zandvoort.
“McLaren made a huge step from Hungary, when they brought that package, and at Zandvoort they brought a further upgrade. I think this is their last major package of the year, but they have made a huge step forward,” Antonelli explained.
In Kimi's view, that progress must also be assessed in the context of the different stages of the teams' development programmes. Mercedes has not introduced any substantial developments for several races and, for that reason, Brackley expected its rivals to gradually close the gap.
“We have stood still since Spa, and we have not brought upgrades since Canada, so we expected that sooner or later the others would become stronger.”
The situation should change in a few weeks' time, however. Antonelli confirmed that Mercedes is planning to introduce a new upgrade package for the Malaysian Grand Prix, with expectations within the team appearing to be high.
“In Malaysia it will be our turn to bring upgrades and the team seems very confident in the package, which should help us regain performance,” added the championship leader.
Before Malaysia, however, there is Monza. Antonelli expects a weekend in which Ferrari could also be involved in the fight, as it looks to perform strongly at its home race on a circuit with very particular characteristics.
“I think Ferrari will also be very strong this weekend, so it will be close. It will be important to maximise the result, do the best possible job and then, when it is our turn to bring upgrades, hopefully they will help us gain performance.”
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